This section looks at the data from some of the most important radioactive waste holders in Australia.
ANSTO
LLW
The estimated volume of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)’s existing LLW is greater than they reported in 2021. This is because ANSTO continued to accumulate waste from its activities in nuclear medicine production and the OPAL reactor operations.
Future
The estimated volume of future LLW is significantly less than the 2021 data because ANSTO has used different assumptions.
Future waste generation now assumes:
- 40 years of design life for some facilities and their activities and processes
- 50 years of remaining operating life for the OPAL research reactor.
The 2021 report used a 100-year time frame to estimate future waste volumes for the expected life cycle of a radioactive waste disposal facility. This year, ANSTO has used different assumptions.
For this report, ANSTO assumes that future waste volumes only reflect activities that already take place in existing facilities. ANSTO has not included data about possible new activities or new facilities for this report.
These assumptions may change over time depending on decisions regarding future waste generating activities and waste disposal facilities.
ILW
Reported volumes of both existing and future waste are smaller than in 2021.
For existing and future ILW, the data estimates the waste’s volume after it has undergone future waste conditioning processes. These processes make waste suitable for long-term storage or disposal. Assumptions about these processes may change over time, so volume estimates may also change.
Future
For future waste, like LLW, the smaller volumes are mainly due to changes in assumptions of:
- operating conditions
- design life of activities like nuclear medicine production.
For example, ANSTO has updated its data on the expected rate of waste production from its nuclear medicine facility because there is now more operational experience.
Assumptions and uncertainties
Without trialling future conditioning processes, there are still uncertainties in how ANSTO’s waste volumes will change over time. This could result in either increases or decreases from the current estimate.
The estimated volumes do not include these uncertainties. This was not the case in the 2021 ILW volumes which included an upper-bound uncertainty. This is one reason ILW numbers have decreased.
Uncertainties change over time. This report shows the best estimate we have based on existing data rather than adding another layer of uncertainty to the numbers.
Changes in assumptions about the design life and future waste generation rate of some ANSTO activities have resulted in significantly reduced estimates of future waste volumes.
For comparison, the rate of future waste production reported in this 2024 inventory is 56 cubic metres per year. The 2021 inventory update reported it as 85 cubic metres per year.
Waste characterisation activities
ANSTO continues to plan and carry out waste characterisation activities. This can change the volumes of existing waste.
CSIRO
Woomera Prohibited Area pilot trial
CSIRO has carried out a pilot trial for remediation of its waste generated from past activities, now stored at the Woomera Prohibited Area.
- The pilot trial tested 911 drums out of the almost 10,000 drums in storage, using a combination of external scans and physical inspection of drum contents.
- Of the drums tested, CSIRO identified that more than 50% met the requirements for exempt waste, with the rest assessed as LLW.
These results are different from those in previous characterisation work. CSIRO carried out this earlier work remotely and did not physically test drum contents.
Continuing the assumption that about 50% of drums are LLW, the estimated LLW volume is significantly higher than the estimate in 2021. The 2021 inventory data indicated only 200 drums of LLW.
These numbers remain a preliminary estimate of LLW at Woomera. The estimate will continue to change as more information becomes available from CSIRO’s ongoing waste characterisation efforts.
Other LLW and ILW
CSIRO did not provide volume estimates for other reported LLW or ILW streams.
Based on waste types, the volume of these waste streams is likely to be in the order of several cubic metres only.
Through ongoing research using radioactive materials, CSIRO will continue to generate small volumes of LLW and ILW. These volumes are not likely to be material compared to volumes generated by ANSTO.
States and territories
In 2021, we compiled state and territory waste volumes using information from the relevant regulators of each state and territory and individual licence holder organisations where possible.
For the 2024 update, ARWA again requested information from the relevant regulators of each state and territory about waste that their jurisdictions were storing and managing.
ARWA did not request information about materials held by their licence holder organisations. This was different from 2021, when ARWA asked regulators to pass on ARWA’s information request to their licence holders.
ARWA received information from some regulators. We have included any waste volume estimates in the total.
For other states and territories where ARWA did not receive data, we have included waste volumes reported in Australia’s 2024 National Report to the Joint Convention. ARWA therefore considers waste reported as:
- ‘suitable for near surface disposal’ to be equivalent to LLW
- ‘not suitable for near surface disposal’ equivalent to ILW.
Defence and ARPANSA
Waste volumes reported by Defence and ARPANSA are in line with those we received in 2021. Any changes are likely due to further waste characterisation efforts, and materials that were previously in use becoming waste.
ASA
Several submarine program sites will generate radioactive waste, including:
- HMAS Stirling and the Henderson Defence Precinct in Western Australia
- the Nuclear-powered Submarine Construction Yard at Osborne in South Australia.
At HMAS Stirling, ASA expects routine in-water operations and maintenance to generate approximately 2 cubic metres of processed low-level radioactive waste per year per submarine.
During submarine construction activities at the Osborne construction yard, ASA will temporarily store small amounts of low-level radioactive waste on site.
Deeper level submarine maintenance and repair activities at the Henderson Defence Precinct will generate radioactive waste.
This report does not include spent nuclear fuel that the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine program will produce.